Sex slave resolution issued in Seoul

SEOUL – The South Korean Parliament’s Foreign Affairs, Trade and Unification Committee adopted a resolution Tuesday demanding that Japan make an official apology to women forced to serve as sex slaves for the Japanese military during the war.

The resolution also calls for Japan to compensate the victims.

It stresses that Japan’s exploitation of sex slaves is “a criminal act against universal human values.”

It also demanded that Japan offer “correct education not to repeat the unhappy history and to accept responsibilities for its crimes against humanity,” including its treatment of the “comfort women,” as the women are euphemistically known.

Man fined in Seoul

KyodoSEOUL

A South Korean man was caught and fined after he threw human excrement at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul to protest Japan’s claim to the Takeshima rocky islets under South Korea’s control, Yonhap News Agency reported.

The 48-year-old man, identified only by his surname, Choi, was caught after throwing two bottles of feces at the embassy shortly after 6 a.m. Monday, the report said.

Yonhap said the bottles fell outside the front gate and no property damage was reported.

The man was set free after being fined, according to the police, who did not reveal the size of the fine.

The report said Choi is the same man who cut off part of his pinky and sent it to the embassy last year after Japan approved a set of new junior high school textbooks that describe the islets, called Dokdo by South Korea, as Japanese territory.

He told police investigators then that he took the extreme action because he was upset by Japan’s claims to the islets even though South Korea had offered humanitarian aid in the wake of last year’s devastating earthquake and tsunami.

On Aug. 24, Yonhap said, a 55-year-old man reportedly tried to kill himself in front of the National Cemetery in southern Seoul after writing a note urging the need to “stand up against” Japan’s claim to the islets.

Tension has risen sharply over the rocky outcroppings after South Korean President Lee Myung Bak made an unprecedented visit there Aug. 10.